Will Smartwatches Spell The Death Of Mechanical Watches?

Smartwatches have been described as many things over the past year or so – but to those who are so inclined, they represent the crossroads of three subjects that some people get extremely geeky about: watches, gadgets and marketing. I’m guilty as charged: a passionate collector of mechanical watches, a gadget freak and (you might have noticed) a marketing nerd. Since I bought an Apple Watch a few months ago, I’ve had no desire to wear my mechanical watches anymore. Formerly objects of great fascination, I now see them as useless pieces of jewelry, and I’m not a jewelry guy. Randy Brandoff, CEO of luxury watch membership company Eleven James, shares the three geekdoms, but is on the other side of the spectrum: he loves technology, but not necessarily on his wrist. The next few years will decide whether smartwatches will replace mechanical watches as the standard – and with it, the paths of businesses large and small. Here’s a showdown between the two sides of the argument.

Marc E. Babej: I think we can both agree that smartwatches are the most important innovation to watches at least since the quartz watch. In my view, even since the arrival of the wristwatch a century ago. The main functionality of a mechanical wristwatch, telling time, is almost a sideshow among the many new features of a smartwatch. I don’t see how, over the long fun, the mechanical watch can maintain its dominant position in the face of such utility.

Randy Brandoff: For almost a generation now, you didn’t have to have a watch to tell the time. You had a smart phone, a computer, and so on. But at the same time, the mechanical watch market has grown 29 of the last 30 years. It’s still an open question if people want the added functionality on their wrist, versus on their phones, or in another form.

A customer demonstrates an Apple Watch at an Apple Store in Bangkok as Apple Watch made its debut in Thailand Friday, July 17, 2015.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Babej: But everyone who buys a smartwatch is voting with his or her pocketbook that they want the added functionality.

Brandoff: Fair, but real watch lovers, who are used to variety, have either ignored it or added it to their rotation..

Babej: I should be the perfect example for that – I used to be a watch collector myself, still have several wristwatches. I still have them – gathering dust. I had assumed that I would still be wearing my mechanical watches on certain occasions. There hasn’t been one such occasion since. Even worse, I couldn’t see it coming.

Brandoff: To each their own. I wear basically the same general outfit every day – jeans, a shirt, and a jacket. What “makes” my outfits are my shoes/sneakers, bracelet, and watch choices. That’s how I demonstrate my sense of fashion. I’ve thought largely the same way for 20 years. There are quite a few people who think that way.

Babej: I thought the same thing about style when I got my smart watch – hence the assumption that I would put on a mechanical occasionally. In practice, it worked out differently: rather than rotate watches, I’ve bought straps in rubber, leather and metal, which I rotate almost daily (and, might add, much more easily than on any mechanical I’ve ever had). That takes care of the style aspect for me.

I’m also not saying that mechanical watches are going away entirely. Rather, I see them as becoming special occasion items. A membership rental model, like Eleven James, addresses that. But as ownership items, I think they’re headed the way of pocket watches – a niche item for people who care about this kind of item, probably even collect it. Some manufacturers produce pocket watches to this day.

Brandoff: It’s hard to say. Belts were made to hold one’s pants up, in a world where people had a pair of pants or two. Belts don’t have a utility function, anymore – yet, people still wear them and have several belts. The pocket watch harkens back to a specific style. It played with a particular style of dress.

As for the watchstraps: some people like going to the same restaurant again and again and ordering different dishes. Others, like me, like to try different restaurants.

Babej: That brings us to the real question: market size: how many people care enough about watches to buy several, and switch them out on a regular basis, to match their wardrobes. I’d say that’s a limited market.

Ironically, the rise of the wristwatch could turn out to be the precedent for the rise of the smartwatch. The wristwatch took the place of the pocket watch not for style considerations, but because the wrist is a useful location for concise information. Now, devices based on newer technology are capable of bringing much more information to that same limited real estate. Which one is more viable in the future? In the early 1900s, wristwatches were deemed practical, but not quite proper. Many also believed that cars were not stylish at all compared to horse-drawn carriages. We know what happened…

Brandoff: But mechanical watches are also about experiencing and appreciating craftsmanship, design – and owning something that lasts not for just a year or two, but for decades. Like our members at Eleven James, I can put on a different watch every few months. With each different watch, I often find myself spending 20 minutes, an hour, looking at it and appreciating everything that went into it. No smart watch can compete with that.

Babej: Fair, but how many people out there appreciate watches as much as you do – there will continue to be such people, but they aren’t the norm now, and won’t become the norm. You’ve just supported the argument why mechanical watches – at least as owned pieces – are destined to become niche items.

Brandoff: Quality is another aspect, though. Sure – you can get your nutritional and caloric intake through relatively cheap, widely available foods. But food appreciation – people cooking, buying organic and local produce are growth trends, because more people want to eat more interestingly.

Babej: Watches aren’t like food, though: with food, you’re replacing something ordinary with something that gives you more pleasure. But smartwatches aren’t replacing one thing with another variant of the same thing. They’re replacing very limited functionality with greatly functionality. The analogy I’d use is a computer and a typewriter. How many people nowadays forsake the benefits of a computer for the sensual experience of using and having a typewriter?

Brandoff: I would answer that with an analogy of my own: Google glass. It added a lot of functionality to corrective eyewear, but it flopped famously. So I’d argue the jury is still out on smartwatches.

Babej: Google glass had its own problems – it was an innovation that offered relatively little essential benefit at the cost of significant disadvantages: it was ugly, and above all, it made the wearer come off as un-cool, obtrusive, even invasive. It was the Segway of personal technology. The style and sentimental reasons for mechanical watches are undeniable. But as items to be bought and owned as main time pieces, I believe they’re destined to lose their dominance: minimal functionality vis a vis new technology, combined with higher production and retail cost, add up to niche – but an appealing niche, that will continue to have its adherents.

Brandoff: Sorry, I missed that last point… I was too busy enjoying my gorgeous timepiece…